The Lincoln Project

Rick sits down with Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney about MUSK, his four-hour film that started as a business profile and turned into something much bigger once Elon hitched his wagon to Trump. Gibney says Musk's fortune was built less on engineering genius than on MYTH-MAKING, a confidence-man playbook of gaslighting and bravado that let him buy his way into American politics. They trace the whole arc: the COVID-era fury, the move to Texas, the Twitter takeover, DOGE, the Epstein-files blowup, and the quick patch-up with Trump. Gibney even built an uncanny AI of Elon Musk from his own recorded words to interrogate him in a way no real interview ever could. They close on the legal threats, the rejected ad buys, and just how dangerous Musk is now that he controls a megaphone AND the future of AI.•••••Alex Gibney is on X @alexgibneyfilm and on Bluesky @alexgibneyfilm.bsky.social. His new film ‘MUSK’ is out now in select theaters, and nationwide on October 16th. Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.

Rick sits down with TIMOTHY SNYDER, the historian who literally wrote the book on tyranny, two of them, in fact: ON TYRANNY and ON FREEDOM. Snyder says that Trump isn't a real strongman. Compared to actual dictators like Putin, he's WEAK — and the right response isn't fear, it's MOCKERY, organizing, and showing up in overwhelming numbers this November. They dig into what Snyder calls a "crisis of dignity" inside the GOP — grown men abasing themselves in front of Trump — and trace that same rot straight to the posthuman, AI-worshipping ideology now sitting inside the White House, courtesy of thinkers like Curtis Yarvin and Steve Bannon pushing America toward a post-democratic future. This is a historian's warning AND a battle plan.•••••Timothy Snyder is on X @TimothyDSnyder & on YouTube @proftimothysnyder. Check out his Substack, at snyder.substack.com/Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#TimothySnyder #OnTyranny #OnFreedom #RickWilson #LincolnProject #CurtisYarvin #SteveBannon #Ukraine #Authoritarianism #VoteEarly

Rick sits down with JACOB WEISBERG, author of PROFILES IN COWARDICE, the book that exposes the men whose lack of courage enabled Trump 2.0. Jacob and Rick go through the receipts: enfeebled Senator Mitch McConnell, who called out Trump on the Senate floor after January 6th and then folded right back into line. Blackstone CEO and billionaire Steve Schwarzman, who was SKEPTICAL of a second term and then caved anyway out of vanity. Chief Justice John Roberts, whose court just handed massive executive power to an authoritarian regime. And George W. Bush, who stayed silent while his family was attacked and his legacy was dismantled by DOGE and Elon Musk. This is a masterclass in how democracies actually die — not with a bang, but with a bunch of powerful men deciding it's easier to fall into line than to stand up for what is right. ••••Jacob Weisberg is on X @jacobwe. His new book, Profiles in Cowardice: A Study of Collaboration in the Trump Era, is out NOW, wherever fine books are sold.Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#JacobWeisberg #ProfilesInCowardice #MitchMcConnell #JohnRoberts #SteveSchwarzman #GeorgeWBush #RickWilson #LincolnProject #Politics2026

The Data Center Grift (with WIRED's Molly Taft)The richest companies in human history have a new hustle, and you're the mark. They're bulldozing warehouses the size of malls into towns too small to fight back, draining the reservoir dry, and torching the power grid — all to run an AI that still can't tell you how many R's are in "strawberry." The best part? They took the tax breaks, promised jobs that never showed, and mailed you the power bill. This week Rick sits down with WIRED senior reporter Molly Taft, who followed the water and the money and found the same thing at the end of both: a con. They get into who's cashing in, who's going dark, and why "the cloud" is the most expensive lie in America right now. Bring your own bottle of water — the robots are thirsty.

Rick sits down with GIL DURAN, the #1 bestselling author of THE NERD REICH: SILICON VALLEY FASCISM AND THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY, and this one goes DEEP. Gil traces how the tech world's lurch to the right didn't start with Trump — it started with San Francisco recall elections that quietly road-tested billionaire-funded populism, then Elon Musk DROPPING $277 MILLION on the 2024 election. They unpack the strange ideological current running through Silicon Valley, including a fringe monarchist thinker's outsized grip on guys like Peter Thiel, who apparently want a "CEO KING" running America. Then it gets darker: a massive AI-driven wealth transfer aimed straight at your job, OpenAI's own Sam Altman admitting the risks are real, and billionaires quietly building escape compounds from HONDURAS to GREENLAND while the rest of us live with the consequences.•••••You can find Gil Duran on Bluesky @gilduran.com. Gil Duran’s new book ‘THE NERD REICH: SILICON VALLEY FASCISM AND THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY’ is available now, wherever fine books are sold.Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#GilDuran #TheNerdReich #SiliconValley #PeterThiel #CurtisYarvin #ElonMusk #SamAltman #RickWilson #LincolnProject #TechOligarchy

STOP DOOMSCROLLING AND PRESS PLAY. This week we get our hands on THE PLAYBOOK. Brian Tyler Cohen — the #1 New York Times bestselling menace behind Shameless — is back with a brand-new battle plan, THE DAY AFTER: HOW TO WIELD POWER IN A POST-TRUMP WORLD, and it is exactly the kick in the pants the left has been begging for. We’re talking about the morning-after question nobody wants to answer: once the smoke clears, WHAT DO DEMOCRATS ACTUALLY DO WITH POWER?? No more clutching pearls. No more bringing a strongly-worded tweet to a knife fight. Brian lays out why Democrats have to go on OFFENSE, stop apologizing, and use every lever they’ve got — because MAGA isn’t waiting around and neither should we. Rick and Brian get into the guts of it: the fumbles, the fixes, and the ruthless, proactive strategy it’ll take to WIN in 2026 and beyond. It’s loud, it’s urgent, it’s a masterclass in spine. Grab the book, grab your headphones, and let’s GO. 🎙️⚡🇺🇸•••••Brian Tyler Cohen is everywhere @BrianTylerCohen, and on his website https://briantylercohen.com. His new book, ‘THE DAY AFTER: HOW TO WIELD POWER IN A POST-TRUMP WORLD,’ is out now, wherever fine books are sold. Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.

Everybody's got a hot take on how American democracy is dying. Almost nobody has an actual plan to save it. This week, Rick Wilson sits down with Ben Wikler — the former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair who turned a purple-state battleground into a national model, and author of This Is the Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy — to skip the hand-wringing and get straight to the blueprint. Because the authoritarian playbook Trump is running isn't magic. It's a system. And systems can be beaten by people who understand how they actually work.Rick and Ben get into the real fight: the systemic threats hollowing out the guardrails, why Supreme Court reform has to be on the table, and the unglamorous grassroots work — local elections, state parties, showing up between the presidential years — that actually moves power. They map the road to a federal trifecta in 2028 and what it would take to finally rip out the rot that's rigged the whole system. It's not a doomscroll and it's not a fairy tale. It's a strategy — and a reminder that the people who built this mess are counting on you believing it can't be fixed. This is the conversation that proves them wrong.•••••Ben Wikler is the former chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and author of This Is the Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy. Find his work at https://www.benwikler.com/, and follow him @benwikler.Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#BenWikler #ThisIsThePlan #SaveDemocracy #RickWilson #LincolnProject #SupremeCourt #Grassroots #2028 #Democracy #Politics #PoliticalPodcast #Podcast